Market Tea Leaves

Thursday, March 27, 2014

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Good Morning Traders,
As
of this writing 6:10 AM EST, here’s what we see:

US Dollar –Up at 80.180, the US Dollar is up 101 ticks and is trading at 80.180. Energies – May Oil is up at 99.32.Financials – The June 30 year bond is currently is up 4 ticks and trading at 133.07. Indices – The June S&P
500 emini ES contract is up 13 ticks and trading at 1852.75.Gold – The April
gold contract is trading up at 1316.10 and is up 49 ticks from its close.Initial Conclusion: This is not a correlated market. The dollar is up+ and
oil is up+ which is not normal and the 30 year bond is trading higher. The Financials should always correlate
with
the US dollar such that if the dollar is lower then bonds should follow
and vice-versa. The indices are higher and the US dollar
is trading up which is not correlated. Gold is trading higher which is not correlated with the
US
dollar trading up. I tend to believe
that Gold has an inverse
relationship with the US Dollar as when the US Dollar is down, Gold
tends to rise in value and vice-versa. Think of it as a seesaw, when one
is up the other should be down. I point this out to you to make you
aware that when we don't have a correlated market, it means something is
wrong. As traders you need to be aware of this and proceed with your
eyes wide open.

Asia traded mixed with half the exchanges trading higher and the other half lower. As
of this writing all of Europe is trading higher.
Please note: whereas the US markets are currently on Daylight Savings
Time, this does not occur in Europe until March 30th. Instead of
opening at 3 AM EST, for the next 3 weeks Europe doesn't open until an
hour later at 4 AM EST.Possible challenges to
traders today is the following:1. S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI y/y is out at 9 AM EST. This is major.
2. HPI m/m is out at 9AM EST. This is major.3. CB Consumer Confidence is out at 10 AM EST. This is major.4. New Home Sales is out at 10 AM EST. This is major.5. Richmond Manufacturing Index is out at 10 AM EST. This is major.
CurrenciesOn Fridaythe
Swiss Franc made it's move at around 9:10 AM EST even before the Flash Manufacturing PMI came out. Look at the
charts
below and you'll
see a
pattern
for
both
assets. The
USD hit a high at about 7 AM EST and continued to fall. In the meantime the Swiss
Franc rose. This was a long opportunity on
the
Swiss
Franc.
The key to capitalizing on these trades is to
watch the USD movement. The USD fall only
lent confirmation to the
move. As a
trader you could have
netted about 20 ticks on this trade, whereas this may not seem like
much
understand that each tick on the Swiss Franc is worth $12.50. To expand
the chart, right click and
open in a new window. Kindly view our special video to determine how to
capitalize on these trades. http://youtu.be/lOxBMe09X3QAs an
add-on to the above video, we created a new one entitled How to Trade
the Swiss Franc in a Volatile Market. I trust you'll find it
interesting and thought provoking. It can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/6cCyR43Qb3Y
Charts Courtesy of Trend Following Trades

Swiss Franc - June, 2014 - 3/24/14

USD - June, 2014 - 3/24/14

Bias

Yesterday we said our bias was neutral as the markets weren't
correlated and gave no sign as to direction. As such the Dow dropped 26
points and the other indices lost ground as
well. Today we are not dealing with a correlated market however our bias is to the upside. Why? We think that because the two prior trading days were disappointing that the bulls will want to put capital back on the table. Could
this
change? Of Course. Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.Yesterday our bias was neutral as the markets weren't correlated and
gave no sign as to direction. Another aspect that came into play was the news that the Russians had attacked some Ukrainian naval bases in the Crimea. Whereas it isn't known as to the exact damages caused; the important aspect was that they attacked. This sent Europe reeling and when you compound that with an uncorrelated market, you have a drawback. It was also announced that the G-7 cancelled their meeting to the G-8 summit in Sochi, Russia as an attempt to boycott the meeting. They also urged the IMF to provide funds and aid to the Ukraine. I'm certain there are those who will say the Russian attack had nothing to do with the markets. I beg to differ. We've seen this movie time and time again. Whenever we have international strife or a geopolitical event occurs somewhere, it has an effect on the markets. But I guess that's one of the "benefits" of a global economy...
Each
day in this newsletter we provide viewers a snapshot of the Swiss Franc
versus the US dollar as a way and means of capitalizing on the inverse
relationship between these two assets. Futures Magazine recognized this
correlation as well. So much so that they printed a story on it in
their December issue. That story can be viewed at:

Many of my readers have been asking me
to spell out the rules of Market Correlation. Recently Futures Magazine
has elected to print a story on the subject matter and I must say I'm
proud of the fact that they did as I'm Author of that article. I
encourage all viewers to read that piece as it spells out the rules of
market correlation and provides charts that show how it works in action.
The article is entitled "How to Exploit and Profit from Market
Correlation" and can be viewed at:

As
readers are probably aware I don't trade equities. While we're on
this discussion, let's define what is meant by a good earnings report. A
company must exceed their prior quarter's earnings per share and must
provide excellent forward guidance. Any falloff between earning per
share or forward guidance will not bode well for the company's shares. This is one of the
reasons I don't
trade equities but prefer futures. There is no earnings reports with
futures and we don't have to be concerned about lawsuits, scandals,
malfeasance, etc.Anytime
the market isn't correlated it's giving you a clue that something isn't
right and you should proceed with caution. Today our bias is to the upside.
Could this change? Of course. In a
volatile market anything can happen. We'll have to monitor and see.

As
I write this the crude markets are trading higher and the US
Dollar is advancing. This is not normal. Think of it this way. If the
stock
market is trading lower, it's safe to assume that the crude market will
follow suit and vice-versa. Crude trades with the expectation that
business activity is expanding. The barometer of which is the equities
or stock market. If you view both the crude and index futures side by
side you will notice this. Yesterday May crude dropped to a low of 99.21 a
barrel. We'll have to monitor and
see
if
crude
either goes lower or holds at the present level. It would appear at
the present time that crude has support at $98.98 a barrel and
resistance
at $100.75 This could change. All we
need do is look at what happened last fall when crude was trading over
$100.00 a barrel. We'll have to monitor and see. Remember that crude
is
the only commodity that is reflected immediately at the gas pump.

If
trading crude today consider doing so after 10 AM EST when the markets gives better direction.
While
we're
on the subject of crude Futures Magazine has decided to print an
article we produced on crude and how to trade it. That article can
viewed at:

Future Challenges:-
Budget - Two weeks ago it was revealed that President Obama has plans for
salaried workers to get paid overtime if they work over 40 hours a
week. The threshold is $455.00 a week; so if a salaried worker makes
more than $455.00 a week then they'll be entitled to overtime pay.
Pardon my saying so but are the folks in DC completely out of their
minds? Their rational? Employers will be forced to hire more part time
workers, thereby reducing the actual unemployment rate of 12.3%. So
instead of focusing on growing the economy to make it more palatable to
hire workers. let's force them to hire more part time workers. One of
the reasons why the unemployment rate is so high is because most of
those people can't work a part time job at minimum wage because it isn't
enough to pay bills. In other words, it's not a living wage. This is
another example of DC gone mad. First, employers will devise a
workaround to this idea if it ever comes to light and secondly, this
President should be more focused on growing the economy as opposed to
looking at it from a finite point of view. While we're on the subject
he should be looking at the "affordable" care act which quite frankly
isn't so affordable. What do I mean? Yes, if you earn less than a
certain amount of income you can get a subsidy to help pay for health
insurance. But have you seen the out-of-pocket costs for those plans?
In the Garden State you have a medical deductible, a hospital deductible
and a total out-of-pocket deductible that if you're ever hospitalized
will cost you dearly. Employers today can tell their workers to go out
under Obamacare if they don't like what's offered. So what's offered? A
high deductible plan with a low premium that employers don't pay 100%
for. So the worker has to pay a premium for the plan and be saddled
with a high deductible to boot. Employers will not have to pay a
penalty for NOT offering insurance until 2016. This is not a good deal
for the American worker and this President should have thought about
what could happen before starting down this path. He can't raise the
minimum wage and just now the Senate has voted on a plan to extend
UI after months of deliberation.
Forex Crunch, a friend of Market Tea Leaves elected to publish an
article on this subject entitled Is the US Embracing a Finite
Mentality? It can be viewed at: http://www.forexcrunch.com/is-the-us-embracing-a-finite-mentality/Crude
oil is trading higher and the US Dollar is advancing. This is not normal.
Crude typically makes 3 major moves (long or short) during the
course of any trading day: around 9 AM EST, 11 AM EST and 2 PM EST when
the crude market closes. If crude makes major moves around those time
frames, then this would suggest normal trending, if not it would suggest
that something is not quite right. As
always watch and monitor your
order flow as anything can happen in this market. This is why
monitoring order flow in today's market is crucial. We as traders are
faced with numerous challenges that we didn't have a few short years
ago. High Frequency Trading is one of them. I'm not an advocate of
scalping however in a market as volatile as this
scalping is an alternative to trend trading.

Remember
that without knowledge of order flow
we as traders are risking our hard earned capital and the Smart Money
will have
no issue taking it from us. Regardless of whatever platform you use for
trading purposes you need to make sure it's monitoring order flow.
Sceeto does an excellent job at this. To fully capitalize on
this newsletter it is important that the reader understand how the
various market
correlate. More on this in subsequent editions.

Nick
Mastrandrea is the author of Market Tea Leaves. Market Tea Leaves is a daily newsletter dedicated to a trader's success. We discuss and teach market correlation. Market Tea
Leaves is published daily, pre-market in the United States and can be viewed at
www.markettealeaves.com
Interested in Market Correlation? Want to learn more?
Signup and receive Market Tea Leaves each day prior to market open. As a
subscriber, you’ll also receive our daily Market Bias video that is only
available to subscribers.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Good Morning Traders,
As
of this writing 5:35 AM EST, here’s what we see:

US Dollar –Up at 80.390, the US Dollar is up 129 ticks and is trading at 80.390. Energies – May Oil is up at 99.55.Financials – The June 30 year bond is currently is down 1 tick and trading at 132.20. Indices – The June S&P
500 emini ES contract is up 13 ticks and trading at 1860.25.Gold – The April
gold contract is trading down at 1326.20 and is down 98 ticks from its close.Initial Conclusion: This is not a correlated market. The dollar is up+ and
oil is up+ which is not normal but the 30 year bond is trading lower. The Financials should always correlate
with
the US dollar such that if the dollar is lower then bonds should follow
and vice-versa. The indices are higher and the US dollar
is trading up which is not correlated. Gold is trading lower which is correlated with the
US
dollar trading up. I tend to believe
that Gold has an inverse
relationship with the US Dollar as when the US Dollar is down, Gold
tends to rise in value and vice-versa. Think of it as a seesaw, when one
is up the other should be down. I point this out to you to make you
aware that when we don't have a correlated market, it means something is
wrong. As traders you need to be aware of this and proceed with your
eyes wide open.

All of Asia traded higher. As
of this writing Europe is trading lower.
Please note: whereas the US markets are currently on Daylight Savings
Time, this does not occur in Europe until March 30th. Instead of
opening at 3 AM EST, for the next 3 weeks Europe doesn't open until an
hour later at 4 AM EST.Possible challenges to
traders today is the following:1. No major economic news to speak of.
2. Lack of major economic news3. Flash Manufacturing PMI is out at 9:45 AM EST. This is the only news item for the US market.CurrenciesOn Fridaythe
Swiss Franc made it's move at around 9:20 AM EST with no major economic news in sight. Look at the
charts
below and you'll
see a
pattern
for
both
assets. The
USD hit a high at around that time and fell. In the meantime the Swiss
Franc rose. This was a long opportunity on
the
Swiss
Franc.
The key to capitalizing on these trades is to
watch the USD movement. The USD fall only
lent confirmation to the
move. As a
trader you could have
netted about 20-30 ticks on this trade, whereas this may not seem like
much
understand that each tick on the Swiss Franc is worth $12.50. To expand
the chart, right click and
open in a new window. Kindly view our special video to determine how to
capitalize on these trades. http://youtu.be/lOxBMe09X3QAs an
add-on to the above video, we created a new one entitled How to Trade
the Swiss Franc in a Volatile Market. I trust you'll find it
interesting and thought provoking. It can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/6cCyR43Qb3Y
Charts Courtesy of Trend Following Trades

Swiss Franc - June, 2014 - 3/21/14

USD - June, 2014 - 3/21/14

Bias

On Friday we said our bias was neutral as the markets weren't correlated and gave no sign as to direction. As such the Dow dropped 28 points and the other indices lost ground as
well. Today we aren't dealing with a correlated market and our bias is neutral. Why? The markets aren't giving us any sense of direction and it was just announced that the Russians attacked naval bases in the Crimea. Could
this
change? Of Course. Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.
On Friday our bias was neutral as the markets weren't correlated and gave no sign as to direction. Another aspect that came into play was Quadruple Witching Friday which is a phenomenon that occurs 4 times a year. It also means a highly volatile session with no sense of normalcy. No what happens on Quadruple Witching Friday that makes it so volatile? Isn't it just normal option expiration that occurs each month? Well no. Quadruple Witching entails stock options, stock indexes (ES, NQ, YM), options on those indices and single stock futures. Let's say you're the holder of stock index options and rollover is coming, you'll want to sell your options for the highest price possible and then buy the next period at the lowest price. So what happens? The Smart Money bids up the price based on an increasing market (after all, they have to take care of their high net worth clients) and justifies it by pumping up the index's and what happens after 11 AM EST? The market drops and they buy at a lower price. Want proof? Take a look at the chart below and looked what happened after 11 AM EST. This is why I mentioned it in Friday's edition. It has built-in, guaranteed high volatility.....

The upper dot represents 11:20 AM EST. Look at what happened to the markets after that time frame...

Each
day in this newsletter we provide viewers a snapshot of the Swiss Franc
versus the US dollar as a way and means of capitalizing on the inverse
relationship between these two assets. Futures Magazine recognized this
correlation as well. So much so that they printed a story on it in
their December issue. That story can be viewed at:

Many of my readers have been asking me
to spell out the rules of Market Correlation. Recently Futures Magazine
has elected to print a story on the subject matter and I must say I'm
proud of the fact that they did as I'm Author of that article. I
encourage all viewers to read that piece as it spells out the rules of
market correlation and provides charts that show how it works in action.
The article is entitled "How to Exploit and Profit from Market
Correlation" and can be viewed at:

As
readers are probably aware I don't trade equities. While we're on
this discussion, let's define what is meant by a good earnings report. A
company must exceed their prior quarter's earnings per share and must
provide excellent forward guidance. Any falloff between earning per
share or forward guidance will not bode well for the company's shares. This is one of the
reasons I don't
trade equities but prefer futures. There is no earnings reports with
futures and we don't have to be concerned about lawsuits, scandals,
malfeasance, etc.Anytime
the market isn't correlated it's giving you a clue that something isn't
right and you should proceed with caution. Today our bias is neutral.
Could this change? Of course. In a
volatile market anything can happen. We'll have to monitor and see.

As
I write this the crude markets are trading higher and the US
Dollar is advancing. This is not normal. Think of it this way. If the
stock
market is trading lower, it's safe to assume that the crude market will
follow suit and vice-versa. Crude trades with the expectation that
business activity is expanding. The barometer of which is the equities
or stock market. If you view both the crude and index futures side by
side you will notice this. Yesterday May crude dropped to a low of 99.11 a
barrel. We'll have to monitor and
see
if
crude
either goes lower or holds at the present level. It would appear at
the present time that crude has support at $98.80 a barrel and
resistance
at $100.16 This could change. All we
need do is look at what happened last fall when crude was trading over
$100.00 a barrel. We'll have to monitor and see. Remember that crude
is
the only commodity that is reflected immediately at the gas pump.

If
trading crude today consider doing so after 10 AM EST when the markets gives better direction.
While
we're
on the subject of crude Futures Magazine has decided to print an
article we produced on crude and how to trade it. That article can
viewed at:

Future Challenges:-
Budget - Two weeks ago it was revealed that President Obama has plans for
salaried workers to get paid overtime if they work over 40 hours a
week. The threshold is $455.00 a week; so if a salaried worker makes
more than $455.00 a week then they'll be entitled to overtime pay.
Pardon my saying so but are the folks in DC completely out of their
minds? Their rational? Employers will be forced to hire more part time
workers, thereby reducing the actual unemployment rate of 12.3%. So
instead of focusing on growing the economy to make it more palatable to
hire workers. let's force them to hire more part time workers. One of
the reasons why the unemployment rate is so high is because most of
those people can't work a part time job at minimum wage because it isn't
enough to pay bills. In other words, it's not a living wage. This is
another example of DC gone mad. First, employers will devise a
workaround to this idea if it ever comes to light and secondly, this
President should be more focused on growing the economy as opposed to
looking at it from a finite point of view. While we're on the subject
he should be looking at the "affordable" care act which quite frankly
isn't so affordable. What do I mean? Yes, if you earn less than a
certain amount of income you can get a subsidy to help pay for health
insurance. But have you seen the out-of-pocket costs for those plans?
In the Garden State you have a medical deductible, a hospital deductible
and a total out-of-pocket deductible that if you're ever hospitalized
will cost you dearly. Employers today can tell their workers to go out
under Obamacare if they don't like what's offered. So what's offered? A
high deductible plan with a low premium that employers don't pay 100%
for. So the worker has to pay a premium for the plan and be saddled
with a high deductible to boot. Employers will not have to pay a
penalty for NOT offering insurance until 2016. This is not a good deal
for the American worker and this President should have thought about
what could happen before starting down this path. He can't raise the
minimum wage and just now the Senate has voted on a plan to extend
UI after months of deliberation.
Forex Crunch, a friend of Market Tea Leaves elected to publish an article on this subject entitled Is the US Embracing a Finite Mentality? It can be viewed at:

Crude
oil is trading higher and the US Dollar is advancing. This is not normal.
Crude typically makes 3 major moves (long or short) during the
course of any trading day: around 9 AM EST, 11 AM EST and 2 PM EST when
the crude market closes. If crude makes major moves around those time
frames, then this would suggest normal trending, if not it would suggest
that something is not quite right. As
always watch and monitor your
order flow as anything can happen in this market. This is why
monitoring order flow in today's market is crucial. We as traders are
faced with numerous challenges that we didn't have a few short years
ago. High Frequency Trading is one of them. I'm not an advocate of
scalping however in a market as volatile as this
scalping is an alternative to trend trading.

Remember
that without knowledge of order flow
we as traders are risking our hard earned capital and the Smart Money
will have
no issue taking it from us. Regardless of whatever platform you use for
trading purposes you need to make sure it's monitoring order flow.
Sceeto does an excellent job at this. To fully capitalize on
this newsletter it is important that the reader understand how the
various market
correlate. More on this in subsequent editions.

Nick
Mastrandrea is the author of Market Tea Leaves. Market Tea Leaves is a daily newsletter dedicated to a trader's success. We discuss and teach market correlation. Market Tea
Leaves is published daily, pre-market in the United States and can be viewed at
www.markettealeaves.com
Interested in Market Correlation? Want to learn more?
Signup and receive Market Tea Leaves each day prior to market open. As a
subscriber, you’ll also receive our daily Market Bias video that is only
available to subscribers.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Good Morning Traders,
As
of this writing 5:10 AM EST, here’s what we see:

US Dollar –Down at 80.315, the US Dollar is down 38 ticks and is trading at 80.315. Energies – May Oil is up at 99.03.Financials – The June 30 year bond is currently is up 7 ticks and trading at 132.09. Indices – The June S&P
500 emini ES contract is up 24 ticks and trading at 1872.00.Gold – The April
gold contract is trading up at 1339.40 and is up 93 ticks from its close.Initial Conclusion: This is not a correlated market. The dollar is down- and
oil is up+ which is normal but the 30 year bond is trading higher. The Financials should always correlate
with
the US dollar such that if the dollar is lower then bonds should follow
and vice-versa. The indices are higher and the US dollar
is trading down which is correlated. Gold is trading higher which is correlated with the
US
dollar trading down. I tend to believe
that Gold has an inverse
relationship with the US Dollar as when the US Dollar is down, Gold
tends to rise in value and vice-versa. Think of it as a seesaw, when one
is up the other should be down. I point this out to you to make you
aware that when we don't have a correlated market, it means something is
wrong. As traders you need to be aware of this and proceed with your
eyes wide open.

All of Asia traded higher. Please note the Japanese Nikkei exchange was closed for a bank holiday. As
of this writing Europe is trading higher.
Please note: whereas the US markets are currently on Daylight Savings
Time, this does not occur in Europe until March 30th. Instead of
opening at 3 AM EST, for the next 3 weeks Europe doesn't open until an
hour later at 4 AM EST.Possible challenges to
traders today is the following:1. FOMC Member Fisher Speaks at 1:45 PM EST. This is major.2. No major economic reports to speak of.3. Lack of major economic news.

CurrenciesYesterdaythe
Swiss Franc made it's move at around 10 AM EST the major news was released. Look at the
charts
below and you'll
see a
pattern
for
both
assets. The
USD hit a high at around that time and fell. In the meantime the Swiss
Franc rose. This was a long opportunity on
the
Swiss
Franc.
The key to capitalizing on these trades is to
watch the USD movement. The USD rise only
lent confirmation to the
move. As a
trader you could have
netted about 20-30 ticks on this trade, whereas this may not seem like
much
understand that each tick on the Swiss Franc is worth $12.50. To expand
the chart, right click and
open in a new window. Kindly view our special video to determine how to
capitalize on these trades. http://youtu.be/lOxBMe09X3QAs an
add-on to the above video, we created a new one entitled How to Trade
the Swiss Franc in a Volatile Market. I trust you'll find it
interesting and thought provoking. It can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/6cCyR43Qb3Y
Charts Courtesy of Trend Following Trades

Swiss Franc - June, 2014 - 3/20/14

USD - June, 2014 - 3/20/14

Bias

Yesterday we said our bias was to the downside as the markets were correlated as such. The markets opened lower but immediately after 10 AM, they rose. The Dow gained 109 points and the other indices rose as well. Today we are not dealing with a correlated market and our bias is neutral. A neutral bias means the markets could go in any direction today. Why? Today is Quadruple Witching Friday which comes 4 times a year and has increased volatility associated with it. Could
this
change? Of Course. Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.
Yesterday our bias was to the downside as the markets were correlated as such. Immediately after 10 AM EST the markets rose due to a very good Philly Fed Manufacturing report that doubled expectation. It came in at 9.0 versus 4.2 expected. This was a good excuse for the Smart Money to move capital into the markets as Existing Home Sales didn't meet expectation and Unemployment Claims rose by 5,000. Besides the markets lost ground on Wednesday so why not make it up on Thursday? This is the mentality of the so-called Smart Money. For those who are new to this newsletter the Smart Money is the institutionals or "big guns" if you will. Just when you think you've got something figured, they'll throw a monkey wrench into the fray to stir things up. This is why we say "anything can happen in a volatile market".....
Each
day in this newsletter we provide viewers a snapshot of the Swiss Franc
versus the US dollar as a way and means of capitalizing on the inverse
relationship between these two assets. Futures Magazine recognized this
correlation as well. So much so that they printed a story on it in
their December issue. That story can be viewed at:

Many of my readers have been asking me
to spell out the rules of Market Correlation. Recently Futures Magazine
has elected to print a story on the subject matter and I must say I'm
proud of the fact that they did as I'm Author of that article. I
encourage all viewers to read that piece as it spells out the rules of
market correlation and provides charts that show how it works in action.
The article is entitled "How to Exploit and Profit from Market
Correlation" and can be viewed at:

As
readers are probably aware I don't trade equities. While we're on
this discussion, let's define what is meant by a good earnings report. A
company must exceed their prior quarter's earnings per share and must
provide excellent forward guidance. Any falloff between earning per
share or forward guidance will not bode well for the company's shares. This is one of the
reasons I don't
trade equities but prefer futures. There is no earnings reports with
futures and we don't have to be concerned about lawsuits, scandals,
malfeasance, etc.Anytime
the market isn't correlated it's giving you a clue that something isn't
right and you should proceed with caution. Today our bias is neutral.
Could this change? Of course. In a
volatile market anything can happen. We'll have to monitor and see.

As
I write this the crude markets are trading higher and the US
Dollar is declining. This is normal. Think of it this way. If the
stock
market is trading lower, it's safe to assume that the crude market will
follow suit and vice-versa. Crude trades with the expectation that
business activity is expanding. The barometer of which is the equities
or stock market. If you view both the crude and index futures side by
side you will notice this. Yesterday May crude dropped to a low of 98.09 a
barrel. We'll have to monitor and
see
if
crude
either goes lower or holds at the present level. It would appear at
the present time that crude has support at $98.16 a barrel and
resistance
at $99.52 This could change. All we
need do is look at what happened last fall when crude was trading over
$100.00 a barrel. We'll have to monitor and see. Remember that crude
is
the only commodity that is reflected immediately at the gas pump.

If
trading crude today consider doing so after 10 AM EST when the markets gives better direction.
While
we're
on the subject of crude Futures Magazine has decided to print an
article we produced on crude and how to trade it. That article can
viewed at:

Future Challenges:-
Budget - Last week it was revealed that President Obama has plans for
salaried workers to get paid overtime if they work over 40 hours a
week. The threshold is $455.00 a week; so if a salaried worker makes
more than $455.00 a week then they'll be entitled to overtime pay.
Pardon my saying so but are the folks in DC completely out of their
minds? Their rational? Employers will be forced to hire more part time
workers, thereby reducing the actual unemployment rate of 12.3%. So
instead of focusing on growing the economy to make it more palatable to
hire workers. let's force them to hire more part time workers. One of
the reasons why the unemployment rate is so high is because most of
those people can't work a part time job at minimum wage because it isn't
enough to pay bills. In other words, it's not a living wage. This is
another example of DC gone mad. First, employers will devise a
workaround to this idea if it ever comes to light and secondly, this
President should be more focused on growing the economy as opposed to
looking at it from a finite point of view. While we're on the subject
he should be looking at the "affordable" care act which quite frankly
isn't so affordable. What do I mean? Yes, if you earn less than a
certain amount of income you can get a subsidy to help pay for health
insurance. But have you seen the out-of-pocket costs for those plans?
In the Garden State you have a medical deductible, a hospital deductible
and a total out-of-pocket deductible that if you're ever hospitalized
will cost you dearly. Employers today can tell their workers to go out
under Obamacare if they don't like what's offered. So what's offered? A
high deductible plan with a low premium that employers don't pay 100%
for. So the worker has to pay a premium for the plan and be saddled
with a high deductible to boot. Employers will not have to pay a
penalty for NOT offering insurance until 2016. This is not a good deal
for the American worker and this President should have thought about
what could happen before starting down this path. He can't raise the
minimum wage and just now the Senate has voted on a plan to extend
UI after months of deliberation.

Crude
oil is trading higher and the US Dollar is declining. This is normal.
Crude typically makes 3 major moves (long or short) during the
course of any trading day: around 9 AM EST, 11 AM EST and 2 PM EST when
the crude market closes. If crude makes major moves around those time
frames, then this would suggest normal trending, if not it would suggest
that something is not quite right. As
always watch and monitor your
order flow as anything can happen in this market. This is why
monitoring order flow in today's market is crucial. We as traders are
faced with numerous challenges that we didn't have a few short years
ago. High Frequency Trading is one of them. I'm not an advocate of
scalping however in a market as volatile as this
scalping is an alternative to trend trading.

Remember
that without knowledge of order flow
we as traders are risking our hard earned capital and the Smart Money
will have
no issue taking it from us. Regardless of whatever platform you use for
trading purposes you need to make sure it's monitoring order flow.
Sceeto does an excellent job at this. To fully capitalize on
this newsletter it is important that the reader understand how the
various market
correlate. More on this in subsequent editions.
Forex Crunch, a friend of Market Tea Leaves published an article on the
Smart Money whereby we define who they are and what they do. This
article can be viewed at: http://www.forexcrunch.com/who-are-the-smart-money-and-what-do-they-do/

Nick
Mastrandrea is the author of Market Tea Leaves. Market Tea Leaves is a daily newsletter dedicated to a trader's success. We discuss and teach market correlation. Market Tea
Leaves is published daily, pre-market in the United States and can be viewed at
www.markettealeaves.com
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